Gaba da Gabanta

Reviewed by Ibrahim Umar Bello

Can’t someone come up with a screenwriting software that signals when a script has made the fatal slop from a hyped up suspense to sheer ludicrousness?

Na’ima (Hafsat Bauchi) is a married woman who wants to get back at her husband Alh Hamza (Tahir Fagge) for destroying her dream of having many children. So with persistence and intimidation she persuaded Ukasha (Adam A Zango) to kidnap her only daughter. Coincidentally for Ukasha, who’s unemployed and in desperate need of money to save his dying mother, Naima’s husband is the reason why he’s unemployed. He agreed to do the job only to find out that he’s put himself in real trouble because Na’ima didn’t keep up her end of the bargain.

Can you go to a job interview without any credentials? Yes, according to the movie. Now the big question; Is kidnapping very easy? Yes, according to the movie. For someone who’s a rookie, Ukasha made the entire kidnapping process looked effortless. He waited for the girl at the entrance of the primary school and picked her up easily without anyone seeing him. What’s more comical is how the 7 year old girl comfortably stayed with him, a total stranger, for a day or two in the bush without for once crying for her parents. You’d thought she’s staying with her favourite aunt. And although it’s all her plan, Na’ima didn’t for once looked like a mother whose child was kidnapped. You’d thought she would look distraught to make the plan water tight but rather only making sad faces whenever she’s on the camera. Alh Hamza’s handling of the situation is also somewhat far-fetched.

Despite some bizarre situations that are impossible to make sense of, for a good hour or so, you might say Gaba Da Gabanta is going ‘Ok’. However, the scripts falls to pieces and turns to a crass in the end. Considering it’s only 58 minutes long (including trailers), the part 3 is more or less about some men in suits, overdoing almost everything- chasing after Ukasha. The rest of the film plays out predictably and instead of upping up the ante, the director waste time on unnecessary scenes and delays the inevitable conclusion.

In dealing with a tricky story line that involves kidnapping, Kamal S Alkali and his team has obviously put in minimal effort in making Gaba Da Gabanta and they don’t expect audience to exercise their brains either.